I just wanna tell a little story in hopes it helps someone else.

I brought my car to the shop around the end of last year cuz I just didn't have the time or energy to work on my car. Too much other shit to do and think about. Anyway, they replaced my valve cover gasket and they said they replaced my sparkplugs. They put into Carfax that they did these repairs. My fuel economy was still garbage with a few other symptoms, so I replaced my own distributor to save some money. I did that a couple weeks ago. It did help some symptoms and fixed an oil leak, but didn't fix everything. Acceleration was still sluggish, especially uphill, and it just felt more labored than I was looking forward to. Fuel economy was still low. I decided I'd deal with it after another paycheck or two.

Fast forward to today -- I'm driving to work. My car dies in the middle of the road going 40mph, and the oil and battery lights come on. It wouldn't start back up, so I had it towed to my cousin's regular shop cuz it was within my AAA tow range. They did a diagnostic and found that not only was the valve cover gasket incorrectly installed, but the sparkplugs hadn't even been checked. They were absolutely dead. I have a 2000 civic dx, so the recommended gap is about .044 if I remember right. Mine were all completely shot with a gap of around .080. They took photos of their inspection to prove what they were saying, unlike the previous shop.

Just a friendly reminder to 1. Double check the shop's work when they're done if you don't know them super well, and 2. Don't let your sparkplugs get this bad!! I should have done them myself a lot sooner if I'm honest. I was lucky enough that my car died in a relatively safe spot about half a mile before hopping on the freeway. You may not be so lucky. Learn from my mistakes!!!